Wow, that was awesome! You just made life easier for me and I thank you for that.

I think meeting with you before I went on the air really helped and I truly appreciate your feedback. I look forward to developing my relationship with all our viewers and YOU will only make me better!

You are a key part of our team. Thank you!

You are a delight and I had a ball working with you.

Thank you so much for your work. I know it is the beginning of what will make a difference for our talent.

Thank you a million. You were tremendous in helping me think through the craft of performing on camera. The hour with you was very valuable.

Sitting with Tony for just an hour is worth an eternity in my career. The guy is an awesome teacher.

Your honesty tempered with sensitivity made it a lot easier to hear the criticism. You are clearly a humane and skilled communicator.

I have to tell you we are receiving great results from your coaching. Our anchors have really improved their connection with each other. It's amazing.

Ratings are up. Viewers are noticing. The anchors get it. And it's all a result of your work with our team along with management's intervention. Getting tangible results kicks ass!

Having worked with quite a few consultants, I can assuredly say this was my most gratifying experience yet.

Another great month. Thank you for all your help with our talent. It's made a big difference.

Why Volume Matters

How loudly to speak is one of the most important and revealing choices you can make on camera. Volume — perhaps more than any other dynamic — ultimately reveals whether you’re interested in connecting with your audience or just performing for them.

Master of Communication: Chuck Scarborough

Few news talent manage volume as deliberately and effectively as NBC New York’s Chuck Scarborough. In the clip featured here, he communicates with a specificity and nuance that would not be possible if he were speaking louder and relying solely on the sound of his voice — which is beautiful and can command attention in its own right. Instead, he chooses a level that invites viewers closer as opposed to pushing them away.

The level also enables him to manage pace (note where he chooses to slow and pause) in a way that underscores the issues that are specific to the story. His delivery is appropriately urgent, but never rushed. The volume facilitates the pace, and the pace invites us to understand and to think about the story. He connects us to the story, as opposed to simply proclaiming the story.

In her book, The Second Circle, world-renowned voice coach Patsy Rodenburg explains that you fundamentally have three choices when you project your voice.

You can project with an energy that is self-contained and does not really reach the listener. Rodenburg terms this area the “first circle” — that area immediately around you that doesn’t really contain anyone but yourself. When your voice and related energy fall back and don’t compel any attention from the viewer, you’re speaking into that first circle and not beyond it.

You can project with an energy that is intended to demand attention but not really intended to connect in any way. It is a volume and energy that goes past the viewer and into a space beyond her, which Rodenburg terms the “third circle.” When your voice and related energy are bgger and louder than necessary to reach the viewer, you are speaking into that third circle. It is a volume and energy that seeks to dominate. It has little to no interest in the reaction or identity of the listener. It just wants attention.

The “second circle” is Rodenburg’s term for the distance of real presence and connection. You use the exact level of volume necessary to reach your viewer. It is the volume level that signals your interest in the other, because it is calibrated by an awareness of the other — how close he is to you. it is the only level at which viewers really feel you have any sincere interest in them, as opposed to just wanting them to pay attention to you.

On television, the key to speaking to viewers at the distance of connection — the second circle — is adjusting your volume to the distance of the shot, as opposed to speaking to the distance of the camera or trying to fill the size and emptiness of your environment. The camera, for instance, may be 10-20 feet away, while the viewers may be seeing you as if you are only 3-5 feet away. The room may feel large and empty to you while the shot feels colse and intimate to them. If you’re going to connect, you have to calibrate your voice to their experience and not your own.

Here are some recommendations that may help:

Study the way you communicate in “real life” when you are in conversation at close range about something that matters to you. Most of the people we coach become animated and alert, leaning toward us, gesturing and speaking at just the volume they need to “land” their words on us. No louder and no softer.

Use the real people around you to calibrate your volume for the camera. If you have a coanchor or other colleague sitting close to you on set or near you in the field, spend a few moments speaking to them naturally and easily, then turn to the camera and attempt to keep the same level.

For many people, this is not as easy as it sounds — probably because the lack of any observable reaction from the camera kicks their voices reflexively into overdrive. They subconsciously get louder and faster, just the way a child gets louder and faster when she can’t get the attention she wants from a parent. For human beings, nothing is as disconcerting as being ignored and treated with indifference, and nothing is as indifferent as a camera lens.

Remember that reduced volume does not necessarily mean less animated. In fact, in conversation talent frequently become more animated when they are concerned about making a point and really feel the need for us to understand it. And isn’t this the way an anchor or reporter should feel when they share a story with viewers? Like they have something important to share and really feel the need for viewers to understand it?

Imagine you are talking at close range to someone you care about — and that cares about you. One fundamental truth of human communication is that the way we express ourselves changes profoundly based on who we believe we are talking to, as well as the distance at which we are addressing them. On television, the audience is always a figment of your imagination. It is important to imagine it in a way that brings out the best in you.

Our Team

Barry Nash

Barry has been coaching television news and sports talent at all levels since 1982. Every night around the world, millions of people get their news from anchors and reporters he has trained and consulted.

Tony Martinez

Tony is an award-winning journalist and a master coach. In addition to his extensive work with news and sports talent, he leads our work with Spanish-language newscasts and coaches MMJs.

Barrett Nash

Barrett is a performance coach and visual image specialist, She is an especially good resource when improving the look of your team is a priority.

Jonathan Knopf

Jonathan is a veteran newsroom manager and coach. He understands how much performance depends on the people who support it, and he works as effectively with producers and writers as he does with talent.

Jenni Steck

Jenni specializes in the development and care of the speaking voice. Contact her especially when you have concerns or questions about the way your talent sound and read.

Patty Pressley

Patty is our long-time office manager. When you have an administrative question for us, she'll have an answer.

WE COACH ONLINE

When you have an immediate need, we can respond faster than ever. When your resources are limited, we can work with your team without incurring travel expense. And if we are visiting your station regularly, we can followup more powerfully than ever before.

All you need on your end is a computer with high-speed internet access and a camera. We take care of the rest.
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COACHING FOR SPANISH-LANGUAGE TALENT

All of our services are also available of Spanish-language news and sports talent and for the news and sportscasts that they serve. Contact Barry Nash or our Spanish- language coach, Tony Martinez, for more information.
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LOOKING FOR TALENT?

Any search for talent should include a visit to Collective Talent, where agents and self- represented talent post updated resumes and reels. There's an important bonus: Let us know you found your new hire on CT and we'll review and coach your new team member for free!

WE’RE IN THE NEWS

February 3, 2016

The New Yorker
Magazine sits in on one of Barry Nash's sessions with NFL Hall-of-Famer, Jerome Bettis.

By Barry Nash

ABOUT US

We are a team of coaches who specialize in the training and development of television news, weather and sports talent.

In all cases, our goal is to provide the resources talent need to achieve "Breakthrough Performance" -- delivery that engages the minds and hearts of viewers, demands their attention, and inspires their loyalty.